In recent years I have had great success assembling flat pack furniture. I'm currently sitting a a computer desk that I "built" over 20 years ago and it's still solid as a rock. Before I go on I have to say that OH is completely useless at this sort of thing and wouldn't even know where to start. He's an extremely clever man, but has no practical skills other than cooking which he is fab at, which is great because I can't cook for toffee! So yes, if I order flatpack it's down to me to assemble it. My biggest triumph was a pine bunk bed for the kids, I put it together single handedly with nothing more than a ratchet screwdriver. It took me literally all day and a lot of bad language but it certainly was an achievement. (OH helped me lift the top bed on the lower one as I couldn't have done that by myself). Since then I have built a lamp table, a bar cart and the bed in the upstairs bedroom. This was surprisingly easy and took less than a morning as it was put together with screws and an allen key. As the stairs up to the bedroom are so narrow any furniture has to be very light or flatpack, hence why I have clothes rails instead of wardrobes and the chest of drawers are those plastic ones. One of which is used as a bedside table but the top is only just big enough for a clock and light. I recently saw a bedside table in the catalogue which had been reduced down from about £80 to a mere £34. It only had one drawer but then the other one is just full of junk I could happily get rid of. I sometimes sleep up there when I'm on an early shift and will watch tv up there if OH is watching something I'm not interested in. It arrived yesterday, I unboxed it and I could see that all the components were numbered and I was initially impressed, that's until I looked at the instruction manual - It was like stepping back into the 1980's, it was just a series of complicated looking diagrams, a lot of arrows and no written instructions. I was hoping for the Allen key/sturdy screw combination but alas no, you needed two different types of screwdriver which luckily I had. The first job was to screw the drawer runner onto the sides of the drawer but the holes didn't line up and I was flummoxed. Then I noticed this tiny little diagram showing that they came in two parts that you had to separate, I tried but I couldn't separate them but to no avail and I thought I'd have to return it. I then noticed that the diagram showed a screwdriver being used to gouge something out in order to do this, and I found this little plastic tab which I gingerly poked at with the screwdriver and lo and behold off it came and I was able to attach the first part of the drawer runner. I went great guns from then on and within half an hour the unit was standing with just the drawer front to attach - It took me another 2 hours to get this right as it consisted of this weird screw/cam-bolt combination. I followed the drawing to the best of my ability but the drawer front simply would not lock on, eventually I decided that I'd try putting the screws in the other way up from what the picture showed and hey presto it fit like a dream. I still don't know how I managed to get the runners on the right way around, I guessed as the diagram was unclear so I was just lucky there. So three hours of blood sweat and tears to assemble the most simple of items - It was like a trip back to the 1970's and 80's.
Way back in the day when my boyfriend and I moved into our first rented place we were told that it was furnished with brand new furniture, we had a look at the place and it was empty but we were assured that the furniture was coming. To cut a long story short it was all flatpack that we were expected to assemble ourselves, he was a carpenter by trade, so it shouldn't have been a problem. Trouble is he was a lazy sod and more often than not inebriated so between the two of us we managed to assemble a coffee table (which went fine) but the chest of drawers and wardrobe was quite a different story. Runners on drawers put on backwards, drawer fronts that were just propped up, and the wardrobe ended up with a wonky door that wouldn't close and this was down to bad instructions, even worse builders and missing screws. Please feel free to share your flatpack triumphs and failures here.
Way back in the day when my boyfriend and I moved into our first rented place we were told that it was furnished with brand new furniture, we had a look at the place and it was empty but we were assured that the furniture was coming. To cut a long story short it was all flatpack that we were expected to assemble ourselves, he was a carpenter by trade, so it shouldn't have been a problem. Trouble is he was a lazy sod and more often than not inebriated so between the two of us we managed to assemble a coffee table (which went fine) but the chest of drawers and wardrobe was quite a different story. Runners on drawers put on backwards, drawer fronts that were just propped up, and the wardrobe ended up with a wonky door that wouldn't close and this was down to bad instructions, even worse builders and missing screws. Please feel free to share your flatpack triumphs and failures here.
